In prior art continuous wrapping machines, a transfer drum feeds chocolates in an ordered succession to a wrapping device.
The wrapping device comprises a first conveyor and a second conveyor, rotating continuously, tangent to each other at a transfer station and defining a wrapping path.
The first conveyor is designed to couple each product to a sheet of wrapping material and to fold the sheet partially around the product. Then, after the product has been transferred to the second conveyor, the sheet of wrapping material is folded around the product to form a tubular wrapping.
While the product is transported along its path by the second conveyor, the ends of the tubular wrapping are folded according to a predetermined wrapping style.
This is done by folding heads which operate downstream of the station where the product is transferred from the first conveyor to the second.
Machines of this type were originally intermittent, that is to say, the first and second conveyors rotated intermittently so as to allow the folding heads to perform certain operations during a stop.
Prior art intermittent machines have relatively low production speeds, however.
To overcome this disadvantage, machines designed to work with continuous motion were made, that is to say, machines where the first and second conveyors moved uninterruptedly.
In this configuration, the folding heads must therefore follow the product along its path and must be movable continuously and synchronized with the first and second conveyors.
This requires the use of mechanisms of considerable structural complexity and high cost.